The Tholians wish it had been, but it was not actually founded to service anti-Federation hostility.

I see. And that is how you explain Tezrene's comment to Bacco about "it is YOU who are surrounded by a heavily armed hostile power" (emphasis mine)?

The Tholians were the only ones acting hostile, and that was in retaliation for what can at best be described as an act of passive pre-emptive hostility from the Federation -- one that could have endangered Tholia's existence.

And is everything the Typhon Pact does that could conceivably be regarded as hostile, somehow the Federation's fault? If the Federation can be wrong, and can do things that can cause the Pact to act, then why can the reverse not be true?

Again, Sekki was working for the Tholian government, which, if you read A Singular Destiny, you will recall was acting independently, without the rest of the Pact knowing about it. The Tholians were doing this as revenge for Bacco's having deprived them of the Breen mercenary fleet just prior to the Borg Invasion.

In other words, the Tholians were going behind the Pact's back to screw over the Federation.

That still seems rather convenient - the use of Sekki to commit crimes that the Pact, as a whole, can quite easily disavow any knowledge of. Quite a readily-made scapegoat, that.

The back cover copy talked about it being a Pax galactica.

Oh yes, and the back cover blurbs don't ever make mistakes, do they?

Tell me, do you think that the rise of China, India, Brazil, and the European Union as major world powers constitutes a threat to the U.S. in real life?

I would call China a threat, yes. Remember Tiananmen Square? Don't tell me they don't have a hostile intent.

Do you think that a nation is only safe from its neighbors if it is a lone superpower to whom no other nation is an equal?

If that means that no other nation would dare attack it, then it just might be.

"Professor, isn't this Pact a threat to the Federation?"

[snip]

I am well aware of that scene. And I have never advocated that the Federation should openly *attack* the Pact, or that open warfare should break out between the two. (Although if the Pact attacks first, the Federation would of course have every right to defend itself.)

The Typhon Pact has been compared, in theory, to the Warsaw Pact. That may be a closer analogy than anyone realizes. Are you aware of how often, and how close, the US and the Soviet Union have gotten to flat-out warfare? There were times when we were a hair-trigger away from World War III. Google the name 'Stanislav Petrov' if you don't believe me. (Although, to be fair, Petrov was a Soviet officer who himself prevented war from breaking out. I don't discount the possibility of a Typhon Pact citizen doing the same.)

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